From: Firedraake 
Subject: [illusions] UFO Chapter XIII - Air Force Academy Textbook (Plain Text in Body)
Date: 21 Apr 1999 04:57:20 -0400
To: illusions@bticc.net

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Chapter XIII Unidentified Flying Objects
Prepared by MultiMedia. Magic, Inc.. 1996 1
Air Force Academy - UFO Text

The following document is taken verbatim from the United States Air 
Forces Academy textbook, "Introductory Space Science, Volume II, 
Department of Physics, USAF." This is the volume that was being used 
by the Air Force Academy, at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Air Force 
Academy pulled this volume from the curicullum in the early 1970"s, 
because of the controversy it generated.

Transcribed by: Don Ecker
Introductory Space Science - Volume II
Department Of Physics - USAF
Edited by:
Major Donald G. Carpenter Co-Editor:
Lt. Colonel Edward R. Therkelson



Unidentified Flying Objects

What is an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)? Well, according to United 
States Air Force Regulation 80-17 (dated 19 September 1966), a UFO is 
"Any" aerial Phenomenon or object which is unknown or appears to be 
out of the ordinary to the observer." This is a very broad definition 
which applies equally well to one individual seeing his first 
noctilucent cloud at twilight as it does to another individual seeing 
his first helicopter. However, at present most people consider the 
term UFO to mean an object which behaves in a strange or erratic 
manner while moving through the Earth"s atmosphere. That strange 
phenomenon has evoked strong emotions and great curiosity among a 
large segment of our world"s population. The average person is 
interested because he loves a mystery, the professional military man 
is involved because of the possible threat to national security, and 
some scientist are interested because of the basic curiosity that led 
them into becoming researchers.

The literature on UFO"s is so vast, and the stories so many and 
varied, that we can only present a sketchy outline of the subject in 
this chapter. That outline includes description classifications, 
operational domains (temporal and spatial), some theories as to the 
nature of the UFO phenomenon, human reactions, attempts to attack the 
problem scientifically, and some tentative conclusions. If you wish to 
read further in this area, the references provide an excellent 
starting point.


33.1 Descriptions

One of the greatest problems you encounter when attempting to catalog 
UFO sightings, is selection of a system for cataloging. No effective 
system has yet been devised, although a number of different systems 
have been proposed. The net result is that almost all UFO data are 
either treated in the form of individual cases, or in the forms of 
inadequate callification systems. However, these systems do tend to 
have some common factors, and a collection of these factors is as 
follows:

a. Size
b. Shape (disc, ellipse, football, etc.)
c. Luminosity
d. Color
e. Number of UFO"s


Behavior:

a. Location (altitude, direction, etc.) b. Patterns of paths (straight 
   line, climbing, zig-zagging, etc.) c. Flight Characteristics 
   (wobbling, fluttering, etc.)
d. Periodicity of sightings
e. Time duration
f. Curiosity or inquisitiveness
g. Avoidance
h. Hostility


Associated Effects:

a. Electro-Magnetic (compass, radio, ignition systems, etc.)
b. Radiation (burns, induced radioactivity, etc.)
c. Ground disturbance (dust stirred up, leaves moved, standing
   wave peaks of surface of water, etc.)
d. Sound (none, hissing, humming, roaring, thunderclaps, etc.)
e. Vibration (weak, strong, slow, fast)
f. Smell (ozone or other odor)
g. Flame (how much, where, when, color)
h. Smoke or cloud (amount, color, persistence)
i. Debris (type, amount, color, persistence)
j. Inhibition of voluntary movement by observers
k. Sighting of "creatures" or "beings"


After Effects:

a. Burned areas or animals
b. depressed or flattened areas
c. Dead or "missing animals"
d. Mentally disturbed people
e. Missing items

We make no attempt here to present available data in terms of the 
foregoing descriptors.


33.2 Operational Domains - Temporal And Spatial

What we will do here is to present evidence that UFO"s are a global 
phenomenon which may have persisted for many thousands of years. 
During this discussion, please remember that the more ancient the 
reports the less sophisticated the observer. Not only were the ancient 
observers lacking the terminilogy necessary to describe complex 
devices (such as present day helicopters) but they were also lacking 
the concepts necessary to understand the true nature of such things as 
television, spaceships, rockets, nuclear weapons and radiation 
effects. To some, the most advanced technological concept was a war 
chariot with knife blades attached to the wheels. By the same token, 
the very lack of accurate terminolgy and descriptions leaves the more 
ancient reports open to considerable misinterpretation, and it may 
well be that present evaluations of individual reports are completely 
wrong. Nevertheless, let us start with an intriguing story in one of 
the oldest chronicles of India. . . . the Book of Dzyan.

The book is a group of "story-teller" legends which were finally 
gathered in manuscript form when man learned to write. One of the 
stories is of a small group of beings who supposedly came to Earth 
many thousands of years ago in a metal craft which orbited the Earth 
several times before landing. As told in the Book "These beings lived 
to themselves and were revered by the humans among whom they had 
settled. But eventually differences arose among them and they divided 
their numbers, several of the men and women and some children settled 
in another city, where they were promptly installed as rulers by the 
awe-stricken populace.

"Separation did not bring peace to these people and finally their 
anger reached a point where the ruler of the original city took with 
him a small number of his warriors and they rose into the air in a 
huge shining metal vessel. While they were many leagues from the city 
of their enemies, they launched a great shining lance that rode on a 
beam of light. It burst apart in the city of their enemies with a 
great ball of flame that shot up to the heavens, almost to the stars. 
All those who were in the city were horribly burned and even those who 
were not in the city - but nearby - were burned also. Those who looked 
upon the lance and the ball of fire were blinded forever afterward. 
Those who entered the city on foot became ill and died. Even the dust 
of the city was poisoned, as were the rivers that flowed through it. 
Men dared not go near it, and it gradually crumbled into dust and was 
forgotten by men."

"When the leader saw what he had done to his own people he retired to 
his palace and refused to see anyone. Then he gathered about him those 
warriors who remained, and their wives and children, and they entered 
their vessels and rose one by one into the sky and sailed away. Nor 
did they return."

Could this foregoing legend really be an account of an extraterestrial 
colonization, complete with guided missle, nuclear warhead and 
radiation effects? It is difficult to assess the validity of that 
explanation...just as it is difficult to explain why Greek, Roman and 
Nordic Mythology all discuss wars and contacts among their "Gods." 
(Even the Bible records conflict between the legions of God and 
Satan.) Could it be that each group recorded their parochial view of 
what was actually a global conflict among alien colonists or visitors? 
Or is it that man has led such a violent existence that he tends to 
expect conflict and violence among even his gods?

Evidence of perhaps an even earlier possible contact was uncovered by 
Tschi Pen Lao of the University of Peking. He discovered astonishing 
carvings in granite on a mountain in Hunan Province and on an island 
in Lake Tungting. These carvings have been evaluated as 47,000 years 
old, and they show people with large trunks (breathing apparatus?...or 
"elephant" heads shown on human bodies? Remember, the Egyptians often 
represented their gods as animal heads on human bodies.)

Only 8,000 years ago, rocks were sculpted in the Tassili plateau of 
Sahara, depicting what appeared to be human beings but with strange 
round heads (helmets? or "sun" heads on human bodies?) And even more 
recently, in the Bible, Genesis (6:4) tells of angels from the sky 
mating with women of Earth, who bore them children. Genesis 19:3 tells 
of Lot meeting two angels in desert and his later feeding them at his 
house. The Bible also tells a rather unusual story of Ezekiel who 
witnessed what has been interpreted by some to have been a spacecraft 
or aircraft landing near the Chebar River in Chaldea (593 B.C.).

Even the Irish have recorded strange visitations. In the Speculum 
Regali in Konungs Skuggsa (and other accounts of the era about 956 
A.D.) are numerous stories of "demonships" in the skies. In one case a 
rope from one such ship became entangled with part of a church. A man 
from the ship climbed down the rope to free it, but was seized by the 
townspeople. The Bishop made the people release the man, who climbed 
back to the ship, where the crew cut the rope and the ship rose and 
sailed out of sight. In all of his actions, the climbing man appeared 
as if he were swimming in water. Stories such as this makes one wonder 
if the legends of the "little people" of Ireland were based upon 
imagination alone.

About the same time, in Lyons (France) three men and a women 
supposedly descended from an airship or spaceship and were captured by 
a mob. These foreigners admitted to being wizards, and were killed. 
(No mention is made of the methods employed to extract the 
admissions.) Many documented UFO sightings occurred throughout the 
Middle Ages, including an especially startling one of a UFO over 
London on 16 December 1742. However, we do not have room to include 
any more of the Middle Ages sightings. Instead, two "more-recent" 
sightings are contained in this section to bring us up to modern 
times.

In a sworn statement dated 21 April 1897, a prosperous and prominent 
farmer named Alexander Hamilton (Le Roy, Kansas, U.S.A.) told of an 
attack upon his cattle at about 10:30 PM the previous Monday. He, his 
son, and his tenant grabbed axes and ran some 700 feet from the house 
to the cow lot where a great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long 
floated some 30 feet above his cattle. It had a carriage underneath 
which was brightly lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which 
had numerous windows. Inside were six strange looking beings jabbering 
in a foreign language. These beings suddenly became aware of Hamilton 
and the others. They immediately turned a searchlight on the farmer, 
and also turned on some power which sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 
ft diameter) located under the craft. The ship rose, taking with it a 
two-year old heifer which was roped about the neck by a cable of 
one-half inch thick, red material. The next day a neighbor, Link 
Thomas, found the animal"s hide, legs and head in his field. He was 
mystified at how the remains got to where they were because of the 
lack of tracks in the soft soil. Alexander Hamilton"s sworn statement 
was accompanied by an affidavit as to his veracity. The affidavit was 
signed by ten of the local leading citizens.

On the evening of 4 November 1957 at Fort Itaipu, Brazil, two sentries 
noted a "new star" in the sky. The "star" grew in size and within 
seconds stopped over the fort. It drifted slowly downward, was as 
large as a big aircraft, and was surrounded by a strong orange glow. A 
distinct humming sound was heard, and then the heat struck. A Sentry 
collapsed almost immediately, the other managed to slide to shelter 
under the heavy cannons where his loud cries awoke the garrison. While 
the troops were scrambling towards their battle stations, complete 
electrical failure occurred. There was panic until the lights came 
back on but a number of men still managed to see an orange glow 
leaving the area at high speed. Both sentries were found badly 
burned...one unconscious and the other incoherent, suffering from deep 
shock.

Thus, UFO sightings not only appear to extend back to 47,000 years 
through time but also are global in nature. One has the feeling that 
this phenomenon deserves some sort of valid scientific investigation, 
even if it is a low level effort.


33.3 Some Theories As To The Nature Of The Ufo Phenomenon

There are very few cohesive theories as to the nature of UFO"s. Those 
theories that have been advanced can be collected in five groups:

a. Mysticism
b. Hoaxes, and rantings due to unstable personalities
c. Secret Weapons
d. Natural Phenomena
e. Alien visitors


Mysticism

It is believed by some cults that the mission of UFO"s and their crews is a
spiritual one, and that all materialistic efforts to determine the UFO"s nature
are
doomed to failure.


Hoaxes and Rantings due to Unstable Personalities

Some have suggested that all UFO reports were the results of pranks 
and hoaxes, or were made by people with unstable personalities. This 
attitude was particularly prevalent during the time period when the 
Air Force investigation was being operated under the code name of 
Project Grudge. A few airlines even went as far as to ground every 
pilot who reported seeing a "flying saucer." The only way for the 
pilot to regain flight status was to undergo a psychiatric 
examination. There was a noticeable decline in pilot reports during 
this time interval, and a few interpreted this decline to prove that 
UFO"s were either hoaxes or the result of unstable personalities. It 
is of interest that NICAP (The National Investigations Committee on 
Aerial Phenomena) even today stillreceives reports from commercial 
pilots who neglect to notify either the Air Force or their own 
airline.

There are a number of cases which indicate that not all reports fall 
in the hoax category. We will examine one such case now. It is the 
Socorro, New Mexico sighting made by police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora. 
Sergeant Zamora was patrolling the streets of Socorro on 24 April 1964 
when he saw a shiny object drift down into an area of gullies on the 
edge of town. He also heard a loud roaring noise which sounded as if 
an old dynamite shed located out that way had exploded. He immediately 
radioed police headquarters, and drove out toward the shed. Zamora was 
forced to stop about 150 yards away from a deep gully in which there 
appeared to be an overturned car. He radioed that he was investigating 
a possible wreck, and then worked his car up onto the mesa and over 
toward the edge of the gully. He parked short, and when he walked the 
final few feet to the edge, he was amazed to see that it was not a car 
but instead was a weird eggshaped object about fifteen feet long, 
white in color and resting on short, metal legs. Beside it, unaware of 
his presence were two humanoids dressed in silvery coveralls. They 
seemed to be working on a portion of the underside of the object. 
Zamora was still standing there, surprised, when they suddenly noticed 
him and dove out of sight around the object. Zamora also headed the 
other way, back toward his car. He glanced back at the object just as 
a bright blue flame shot down from the underside. Within seconds the 
eggshaped thing rose out of the gully with "an earsplitting roar." The 
object was out of sight over the nearby mountains almost immediately, 
and Sergeant Zamora was moving the opposite direction almost as fast 
when he met Sergeant Sam Chavez who was responding to Zamora"s earlier 
radio calls. Together they investigated the gully and found the bushes 
charred and still smoking where the blue flame had jetted down on 
them. About the charred area were four deep marks where the metal legs 
had been. Each mark was three and one half inches deep, and was 
circular in shape. The sand in the gully was very hard packed so no 
sign of the humanoids" footprints could be found. An official 
investigation was launched that same day, and all data obtained 
supported the stories of Zamora and Chavez. It is rather difficult to 
label this episode a hoax, and it is also doubtful that both Zamora 
and Chavez shared portions of the same hallucination.


Secret Weapons

A few individuals have proposed that UFO"s are actually advanced 
weapon systems, and that their natures must not be revealed. Very few 
people accept this as a credible suggestion.


Natural Phenomena

It has also been suggested that at least some, and possibly all of the 
UFO cases were just mis-interpreted manifestations of natural 
phenomena. Undoubtedly this suggestion has some merit. People have 
reported, as UFO"s, objects which were conclusively proven to be 
balloons (weather and skyhook), the planet Venus, man-made artificial 
satellites, normal aircraft, unusual cloud formations, and lights from 
ceilometers (equipment projecting light beams on cloud bases to 
determine the height of the aircraft visual ceiling). It is also 
suspected that people have reported mirages, optical illusions, swamp 
gas and ball lightning (a poorly-understood discharge of electrical 
energy in a spheroidal or ellipsoidal shape...some charges have lasted 
for up to fifteen minutes but the ball is usually no bigger than a 
large orange.) But it is difficult to tell a swamp dweller that the 
strange, fast-moving light he saw in the sky was swamp gas; and it is 
just as difficult to tell a farmer that a bright UFO in the sky is the 
same ball lightning that he has seen rolling along his fence wires in 
dry weather. Thus accidental mis-identification of what might well be 
natural phenomena breeds mistrust and disbelief; it leads to the hasty 
conclusion that the truth is deliberatly not being told. One last 
suggestion of interest has been made, that the UFO"s were plasmoids 
from space...concentrated blobs of solar wind that succeeded in 
reaching the surface of the Earth. Somehow this last suggestion does 
not seem to be very plausible; perhaps because it ignores such things 
as penetration of Earth"s magnetic field.


Alien Visitors

The most stimulating theory for us is that the UFO"s are material 
objects which are either "Manned" or remote-controlled by beings who 
are alien to this planet. There is some evidence supporting this 
viewpoint. In addition to police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora"s experience, 
let us consider the case of Barney and Betty Hill. On a trip through 
New England they lost two hours on the night of 19 September 1961 
without even realizing it. However, after that night both Barney and 
Betty began developing psychological problems which eventually grew 
sufficiently severe that they submitted themselves to psychiatric 
examination and treatment. During the course of treatment hypnotherapy 
was used, and it yielded remarkably detailed and similar stories from 
both Barney and Betty. Essentially they had been hypotically 
kidnapped, taken aboard a UFO, submitted to two-hour physicals, and 
released with posthypnotic suggestions to forget the entire incident. 
The evidence is rather strong that this is what the Hills, even in 
their subconscious, believe happened to them. And it is of particular 
importance that after the "posthypnotic block" was removed, both of 
the Hills ceased having their psychological problems.

The Hill"s description of the aliens was similar to descriptions 
provided in other cases, but this particular type of alien appears to 
be in the minority. The most commonly described alien is about three 
and one half feet tall, has a round head (helmet?), arms reaching to 
or below his knees, and is wearing a silvery space suit or coveralls. 
Other aliens appear to be essentially the same as Earthmen, while 
still others have particularily wide (wrap around) eyes and mouths 
with very thin lips. And there is a rare group reported as about four 
feet tall, weight of around 35 pounds, and covered with thick hair or 
fur (clothing?). Members of this last group are described as being 
extremely strong. If such beings are visiting Earth, two questions 
arise: 1) why haven"t they attempted to contact us officially? The 
answer to the first question may exist partially in Sergeant Lonnie 
Zamora"s experience, and may exist partially in the Tunguska metor 
discussed in Chapter XXIX. In that chapter it was suggested that the 
Tunguska metor was actually a comet which exploded in the atmosphere, 
the ices melted and the dust spread out. Hence, no debris. However, it 
has also been suggested that the Tunguska meteor was actually an alien 
spacecraft that entered the atmosphere too rapidly, suffered 
mechanical failure, and lost its power supply and/or weapons in a 
nuclear explosion. While that hypothesis may seem far fetched, sample 
of tree rings from around the world reveal that, immediately after the 
Tunguska meteor explosion, the level of radioactivity in the world 
rose sharply for a short period of time. It is difficult to find a 
natural explanation for that increase in radioactivity, although the 
suggestion has been advanced that enough of the meteor"s great Kinetic 
energy was converted into heat (by atmospheric friction) that a fusion 
reaction occurred. This still leaves us with no answer to the second 
question: why no contact? That question is very easy to answer in 
several ways: 1) we may be the object of intensive sociological and 
psychological study. In such studies you usually avoid disturbing the 
test subjects" environment; 2) you do not "contact" a colony of ants, 
and humans may seem that way to any aliens (variation: a zoo is fun to 
visit, but you don"t "contact" the lizards); 3) such contact may have 
already taken place secretly; and 4) such contact may have already 
taken place on a different plane of awareness and we are not yet 
sensitive to communications on such a plane. These are just a few of 
the reasons. You may add to the list as you desire.


33.4 Human Fear And Hostility

Besides the foregoing reasons, contacting humans is downright 
dangerous. Think about that for a moment! On the microscopic level our 
bodies reject and fight (through production antibodies) any alien 
material; this process helps us fight off disease but it also 
sometimes results in allergic reactions to innocous materials. On the 
macroscopic (psychological and sociological) level we are antagonistic 
to beings that are "different". For proof of that, just watch how an 
odd child is treated by other children, or how a minority group is 
socially deprived, or how the Arabs feel about the Israelis (Chinese 
vs Japanese, Turks vs Greeks, etc.) In case you are hesitant to extend 
that concept to the treatment of aliens let me point out that in very 
ancient times, possible extraterrestrials may have been treated as 
Gods but in the last two thousand years, the evidence is that any 
possible aliens have been ripped apart by mobs, shot and shot at, 
physically assaulted, and in general treated with fear and aggression.

In Ireland about 1,000 A.D., supposed airships were treated as 
"demonships." In Lyons, France, "admitted" space travellers were 
killed. More recently, on 24 July 1957 Russian anti-aircraft batteries 
on the Kouril Islands opened fire on UFO"s. Although all Soviet 
anti-aircraft batteries on the Islands were in action, no hits were 
made. The UFO"s were luminous and moved very fast. We too have fired 
on UFO"s. About ten o"clock one morning, a radar site near a fighter 
base picked up a UFO doing 700 mph. The UFO then slowed to 100 mph, 
and two F-86"s were scrambled to intercept. Eventually one F-86 closed 
on the UFO at about 3,000 feet altitude. The UFO began to accelerate 
away but the pilot still managed to get within 500 yards of the target 
for a short period of time. It was definately saucer shaped. As the 
pilot pushed the F-86 at top speed, the UFO began to pull away. When 
the range reached 1,000 yards, the pilot armed his guns and fired in 
an attempt to down the saucer. He failed, and the UFO pulled away 
rapidly, vanishing in the distance. This same basic situation may have 
happened on a more personal level. On Sunday evening 21 August 1955, 
eight adults and three children were on the Sutton Farm (one-half mile 
from Kelly, Kentucky) when, according to them, one of the children saw 
a brightly glowing UFO settle behind the barn, out of sight from where 
he stood. Other witnesses on nearby farms also saw the object. 
However, the Suttons dismissed it as a "shooting star", and did not 
investigate. Approximately thirty minutes later (at 8:00 pm), the 
family dogs began barking so two of the men went to the back door and 
looked out. Approximately 50 feet away and coming toward them was a 
creature wearing a glowing silvery suit. It was about three and 
one-half feet tall with a large round head and very long arms. It had 
large webbed hands which were equipped with claws. The two Suttons 
grabbed a twelve gauge shotgun and a .22 caliber pistol, and fired at 
close range. They could hear the pellets and bullet ricochet as if off 
of metal. The creature was knocked down, but jumped up and scrambled 
away. The Suttons retreated into the house, turned off all inside 
lights, and turned on the porch light. At that moment, one of the 
women who was peeking out of the dining room window discovered that a 
creature with some sort of helmet and wide slit eyes was peeking back 
at her. She screamed, the men rushed in and started shooting. The 
creature was knocked backwards but again scrambled away without 
apparent harm. More shooting occurred (a total of about 50 rounds) 
over the next 20 minutes and the creatures finally left (perhaps 
feeling unwelcome?) After about a two hour wait (for safety), the 
Suttons left too.
 By the time the police got there, the aliens were gone but the 
 Suttons would not move back to the farm. They sold it and departed. 
 This reported incident does bear out the contention though that 
 humans are dangerous. At no time in the story did the supposed aliens 
 shoot back, although one is left with the imprssion that the 
 described creatures were having fun scaring humans.


33.5 Attempts At Scientific Approaches

In any scientific endeavor, the first step is to aquire data, the 
second step to classify the data, and the third step to form 
hypothesis. The hypothesis are tested by repeating the entire process, 
with each cycle resulting in an increase in understanding (we hope). 
The UFO phenomenon does not yield readily to this approach because the 
data taken so far exhibits both excessive variety and vagueness. The 
vagueness is caused in part by the lack of preparation of the 
observer...very few people leave their house knowing that they are 
going to see a UFO that evening. Photographs are overexposed or 
underexposed, and rarely in color. Hardly anyone carries around a 
radiation counter or magnetometer. And, in addition to this, there is 
a very high level of "noise" in the data.

The noise consists of mistaken reports of known natural phenomena, 
hoaxes, reports by unstable individuals and mistaken removal of data 
regarding possible unnatural or unknown natural phenomena (by 
overzealous individuals who are trying to eliminate all data due to 
known natural phenomena). In addition, those data, which do appear to 
be valid, exhibit an excessive amount of variety relative to the 
statistical samples which are available. This has led to very clumsy 
classification systems, which in turn provide quite unfertile ground 
for formulation of hypothesis.

One hypothesis which looked promising for a time was that of ORTHOTENY 
(i.e., UFO sightings fall on "great circle" routes). At first, plots 
of sightings seemed to verify the concept of orthoteny but recent use 
of computers has revealed that even random numbers yield "great 
circle" plots as neatly as do UFO sightings. There is one solid 
advance that has been made though. Jacques and Janine Vallee have 
taken a particular type of UFO - namely those that are lower than 
tree-top level when sighted - and plotted the UFO"s estimated diameter 
versus the estimated distance from the observer. The result yields an 
average diameter of 5 meters with a very characteristic drop for short 
viewing distances. This behavior at the extremes of the curve is well 
known to astronomers and psychologists as the "moon illusion." The 
illusion only occurs when the object being viewed is a real, physical 
object. Because this implies that the observers have viewed a real 
object, it permits us to accept also their statement that these 
particular UFO"s had a rotational axis of symmetry.

Another, less solid, advance made by the Vallee"s was their plotting 
of the total number of sightings per week versus the date. They did 
this for the time span from 1947 to 1962, and then attempted to match 
the peaks of the curve (every 2 years 2 months) to the times of 
Earth-Mars conjuction (every 2 years 1.4 months). The match was very 
good between 1950 and 1956 but was poor outside those limits. Also, 
the peaks were not only at the times of Earth-Mars conjunction but 
also roughly at the first harmonic (very loosely, every 13 months). 
This raises the question why should UFO"s only visit Earth when Mars 
is in conjunction and when it is on the opposite side of the sun. 
Obviously, the conjunction periodicity of Mars is not the final 
answer. As it happens, there is an interesting possibility to 
consider. Suppose Jupiter"s conjunctions were used; they are every 
13.1 months. That would satisfy the observed periods nicelly, except 
for every even data peak being of different magnitude from every odd 
data peak. Perhaps a combination of Martian, Jovian, and Saturnian 
(and even other planetary) conjunctions will be necessary to match the 
frequency plot...if it can be matched.

Further data correlation is quite difficult. There are a large number 
of different saucer shapes but this may mean little. For example, look 
at the number of different types of aircraft which are in use in the 
U. S. Air Force alone.

In is obvious that intensive scientific study is needed in this area; 
no such study has yet been undertaken at the necessary levels of 
intensity needed. Something that must be guarded against in any such 
study is the trap of implicity assuming that our knowledge of Physics 
(or any other branch of science) is complete. An example of one such 
trap is selecting a group of physical laws which we now accept as 
valid, and assume that they will never be superceded.


Five such laws might be:

1) Every action must have an opposite and equal reaction.
2) Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a 
   force proportional to the product of the masses and inversely as the 
   square of the distance.
3) Energy, mass and momentum are conserved.
4) No material body can have a speed as great as c, the speed of light 
   in free space.
5) The maximum energy, E, which can be obtained from a body at rest is 
   E=mc2, where m is the rest mass of the body.

Laws numbered 1 and 3 seem fairly safe, but let us hesitate and take 
another look. Actually, law number 3 is only valid (now) from a 
relativistic viewpoint; and for that matter so are laws 4 and 5. But 
relativity completely revised these physical concepts after 1915, 
before then Newtonian mechanics were supreme. We should also note that 
general relativity has not yet been verified. Thus we have the 
peculiar situation of five laws which appear to deny the possibility 
of intelligent alien control of UFO"s, yet three of the laws are 
recent in concept and may not even be valid. Also, law number 2 has 
not yet been tested under conditions of large relative speeds or 
accelerations. We should not deny the possibility of alien control of 
UFO"s on the basis of preconceived notions not established as related 
or relevant to the UFO"s.


33.6 Conclusion

>From available information, the UFO phenomenon appears to have been 
global in nature for almost 50,000 years. The majority of known 
witnesses have been reliable people who have seen easily-explained 
natural phenomena, and there appears to be no overall possitive 
correlation with population density. The entire phenomenon could be 
psychological in nature but that is quite doubtful. However, 
psychological factors probably do enter the data picture as "noise." 
The phenomenon could also be entirely due to known and unknown 
phenomena (with some psychological "noise" added in) but that too is 
questionable in view of some of the available data.

This leaves us with the unpleasant possibility of alien visitors to 
our planet, or at least of alien controlled UFO"s. However, the data 
are not well correlated, and what questionable data there are suggest 
the existence of at least three and maybe four differnet groups of 
aliens (possibly at different states of development). This too is 
difficult to accept. It implies the existence of intelligent life on a 
majority of the planets in our solar system, or a surprisingly strong 
interest in Earth by members of other solar systems.

A solution to the UFO problem may be obtained by the long and diligent 
effort of a large group of well financed and competent scientists, 
unfortunately there is no evidence suggesting that such an effort is 
going to be made. However, enen if such an effort were made, there is 
no guarantee of success because of the isolated and sporatic nature of 
the sightings. Also, there may be nothing to find, and that would mean 
a long search with no profit at the end. The best thing to do is to 
keep an open and skeptical mind, and not take an extreme position on 
any side of the question.


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